Claymore 2032
by Devil of Solitude
Summary: A seemingly young woman mysteriously looses her memory, following clues she finds what she needs to remember who and what she is...things get strange from there, but all is revealed in the single object that makes her remember all too well.
1. Lost

**The Devil of Solitude**

A story by: The Devil of Solitude

2011

**I do not own any of the characters, places or anything in this story, except those dark places in between the light and dark, happiness and insanity. All credit of pre existing things go to their respective owners,without them we would never have been inspired to write Fan Fiction.**

Darkness ebbs and darkness flows, it darkels and tincts

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>She is the light that shatters my darkness...<p><p>

Chapter One...

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><strong>Lusk Hollow...and the Witch<strong>

From the silent darkness from where I was pretty much resigning to because of the endless feeling, though there were no senses that worked to tell weather I was alive or dead, breathing or still and zero any thing audible . But then at some point a strange feeling started seeping through the ink black, it took me seemingly a long time to figure out that is was sound. At first I could not identify it but soon enough it started coming through and my brain registered it, it was white noise and then revelation...it was rain.

A crack of thunder sent a shock through my extremely sensitive and deprived systems. Then came feeling, I felt cold as hell but it wasn't the cold from the abyss...it was wet and cold I could start to feel each and every rain drop as it hit my flesh. It seemed to take forever to do, but after trying for what seemed like forever my eye's began opening and things started focusing into view. Now comes the question I would never find a definitive answer for...what the HELL happened to me?

I heard a strange noise, unfamiliar.

But a moment after it ceased I registered as coming from me, a low groan...of pain, grogginess or what I had not the faculty to ascertain yet. My body felt lifeless and hollow as I lay powerless, my eyes still trying to focus the world that surrounded me. My sight was blurry and the rain falling into them was not helping all that much, it was more like a thunder storm down pour, the cold liquid running into my eye's stung a bit and seeping between my slightly parted lips tasted slightly acidic.

My sense of smell returned before my sight focused, I was assaulted by a dank musty smell with damp old paper like scents...it smelled like a dump wherever I was. Now focused it was dark but not totally, there were light sources all over but I happened to just be in a dark spot what appeared to be an ally likely. The sounds and scents and what I could see suggested that some how I was in a dark stinking ally of some city, surely wasn't a town from all I was beginning to hear and smell.

After a while letting my senses return to some thing recognizable as normal I tried moving, my body was stiff as if I were frozen but proceeded to begin moving as I wanted. Stiff as if frozen...that theory was likely to become true if I did not get my ass to moving soon, this downpour would most certainly start the effects of hypothermia sooner than later if I didn't. Rolling over from my side onto my back seemed sluggish, and it took me quite a bit longer to get to my feet.

My first steps were unsure and wobbly and I nearly tripped and went face first into the steel corner of a nearby dumpster, I caught myself and worked my way around it under an old awning just to the side of it attached to the building.

I got stable a bit later and started trying to warm myself up by doing some simple mechanical movements to limber up my joints and try to get some internal heat building, though if I did not find a warm place and some dry clothes or at least a place to dry my own and warm up I would be screwed any way. Rubbing my arms to try to get the feeling back into the skin my arm's kept bumping some thing on the front of me, I wasn't wearing a jacket and wondered what the hell that could be. Stopping my warming I looked down curiously and what I discovered made my eye's bug out and I stopped breathing for a moment, what the HELL?

"What the hell...is...this...SHIT!"

I damn near tore my shirt off by the collar as I practically jammed my head down inside it as if I were near sighted and blind as a bat, and there they were and real as day and I had a head spinning bout of anxiety I cannot classify. I have no clue as to what terminology or name for a disorder that would be caused by waking up in another persons body or just one not your own any way, not separation anxiety that's wrong and just stupid in this case...but it did not matter...any of it...I was STILL looking under my shirt to my chest and I was STILL seeing what were plain as day breasts!

On a different note though, they were...Ahem!...one of the best sets I had ever seen. Joking aside I was not currently amused with this development at all, I let go of my now stretched out black t shirt and tilted my head back blowing out a startled and nervous breath of air I had apparently been holding till I got light headed. Still I did a double take and looked again this time not jamming my head into the shirt, still there, still perfect, nipples hard as rocks from the rain soaked shirt and...

I let go of the shirt asking myself what the fuck am I doing? And what the fuck is going on, what the fuck happened to me and what the hell am I going to do now and where in the blue hell was I? My first thought was going to the cops, strange enough...I hated cops mostly except when they were to my advantage. Checking my clothes for pockets I found a few, fishing out what felt like my wallet I yanked it out and it seemed to be a small pocket purse not a wallet but...*Close enough for government work* I figured to myself, opened it hoping like hell I had my id and everything and low and behold it did...just not mine...

Flipping through the small purse I found id, it looked odd but it looked as legit as any I had ever seen.

Mega Tokyo

Japan Citizen ID

Operator DL: 4961-68-9948

Iss: 11/04/2031 Exp:07/31/2036

Maeda

Kei

Umiko

5-15-8 Shinjuku, Shinjuku

CBN%: 0

Yadda yadda, the normal jagger except it was in Japanese and I could read it. Who was this woman who's stuff I had? My mind returning to earlier I looked down at my chest where there under my shirt bulged to ample breasts, I sighed and looked back at the ID then shrugged after a moment. I needed a place to clear my head and gather my wits, and this damned rain and cold wind and being soaked was not doing it.

Rifling through the small purse after replacing the ID I found a few other perhaps useful items, the most useful I found that would meet my current needs was a thick lining of bills. It was of course to my dismay Yen, guess it was not as dismaying as I found I could not only read Japanese but also had prior knowledge that normally a native would. It flipped in my mind that this cash would be far more than enough to get a decent hotel room for the time being, but I also am in great need of a change of clothing, later I would worry about my grumbling gut and also the questions in my mind about what happened to myself and why I have boobs and so on.

Also I found a pass card for a Maglev, heard of those there trains of some sort. Assorted cards likely credit and bank cards as I passed them up looking for more immediately useful items, but other than the ID and cash there was nothing atm that I seen that would help me out so I closed it and replaced it in my back pocket checking the rest and found nothing but a soaked pack of smokes and a nice zippo lighter that would more than likely not be affected by the dampness and a set of key's that I was willing to bet would unlock a door some where at 5-15-8 Shinjuku, Shinjuku as I guessed that is where...someone...lived this woman.

Deciding to get a move on as my body began the shivers in an attempt to warm itself, early beginnings of hypothermia. The mouth of the ally opened into a fairly busy street, not a main one but it was for the better as I likely looked like hell but exactly what I looked like I had no friggin clue because of the surprises in my shirt. I got a good look at what I was wearing though before I ventured any further. A plain black sleeved t shirt, baggy black cargo pants and a pair of what looked like athletic trainers which were also black but with red swatches on the toe and sides...all soaked of course.

Thinking of how much money I had I figured it to be quite a bit and I could likely afford a good new outfit, shoes and hopefully a umbrella or some thing before venturing to find a place to stay the night in this place. Eventually I did find a clothing outlet, it was the single most awkward situation in my life and I am glad it went quickly thankfully due to a very nice and not to mention cute sales girl that practically ran up to me upon my entering the establishment, of course I looked like a drowned rat she stroked my ego though and to my shock called me Miss! I did my best to not be a weirdo and went along with it, trying to shop in the woman's section about made me freak and I told her I had absolutely no clue as I'd never worn anything like what they had.

She swallowed this bit eagerly and helped me pick out some thing that was sensible yet not all frilly or any thing near that and went for a decidedly more sporty look. In the end I got a good deal on it all, a very nice pair of jeans, a pair of lace up medium flat heels that resembled combats I seemed oddly used too, a decent shirt and a black hoodie and also they had an umbrella that I got as well. I went out the door and stood there under the store front overhang looked around my wet clothes in a bag in one hand, my other in my jeans pocket hood up wondering where to go next.

My mind wandered, and yet I could not recall what happened to me or even who I used to be except I got the feeling I was not a female before. I seemed to be having some sort of split personality but not really, it was although kinda like I came from another body and was dropped into this one and set loose in a strange land. I shook my head pushing these thoughts away quickly, figuring it would just drive me insane. It was then that a motorcycle went by close to the curb barely missing me as I was too close to it's edge at that point, I staggered backward startled at how close it came to me nearly falling on my ass. The bike stopped for a moment, I could not see the riders entire face but could barely see the eye's they were a woman's and they were red and they sent a shock through me that was like a partial memory recollection though nothing much came except a name and that was Priss. Was that really this woman on the bikes name, everything was uncertain but what was certain was she was telling me off curtly and gave me the finger before she sped off. I stood there for a moment and sighed, and promised myself no more day dreaming while out and about.

I was making my way to find a hotel or a motel which ever I found first, the rain had let up and I was able to fold up the umbrella and place it in my bag. Not long after that I was passing another ally much the same as all the others when suddenly I was grabbed and yanked suddenly and viciously into the dark, being slammed into the concrete wall of the adjacent building making my head spin slightly and damn did it hurt. Gaining my wits quickly my eyes focused on 4 punks, several of them with cyber implants others looking all human. The big guy of the bunch had hold of me and he had this shit eating grin that was missing several teeth, they all reeked like shit and looked like your garden variety street gang ass holes.

"Well well well...lookie what we got here boys, we gots us a cutie pie!"

They all laughed catering to the big mans ego like a bunch of tools, Oh great! I thought to myself, I'm in deep shit. I hadn't struggled up to this point because I was too busy freaking out in my mind and not knowing what to do, I guess I was frozen for a bit.

"Hehehe...I'll bet your gonna feel and taste so fine baby...c'mere and let old Geist have a taste..."

That big smelly fucker practically breathed in my face he was so close and when I felt him grab one of my breasts some thing in me snapped, I had no clue as to what the hell happened but it was like I was no longer in my own body and I was watching all this stuff happen through the persons eye's like a first person type video game. The gangsters eye's opened wide as dinner plates and he chocked and gagged making sick sounds and it was my hand on his throat suddenly, WTF! I thought and next I had lifted him single handed off the ground and tossed him into the brick wall of the building across the alleyway. He hit super hard with a loud sickening crack and he fell to the ground leaving a big blood splash on the dark brick and did not move, the other three stood shocked for a moment...hell I was feeling the same way but snapped myself out of it as the eye's turned to them and one up and ran the other two pulled out weapons.

One had a rather large fixed blade hunting knife while the other had a baton with electrodes built in that threw sparks when he activated it, oh well this is just great I'm blacked out and some how winning...shit now I'm going to get fried and sliced to death and I'm not even in my right mind or know who I am yet!

"Your gonna pay BIG TIME for that you little whore!"

This guy just ran right at me and swung the big hunting knife right at my stomach and thudded to a stop, **Oh Fuck!** I thought swearing to god that I now had that knife in my gut...what the HELL is going ON?

Suddenly though the guy looked up with a face of terror that turned his face white as a ghost, he squealed as his hand holding the knife came up into view...no blood on it at all and I was relived. His wrist snapped the sound echoing slightly off the brick and concrete walls on either side of us, the knife dropped and so did he. Silence for a moment after this, the other guy held his weapon at the ready but did not strike oddly and then came a voice that was strange and yet familiar and after a moment realized it was coming from my mouth. My vision came to the man with the weapon still standing, then back to the one holding his wrist and cursing and crying.

"Well...are you two men still so willing to die in the gutter for nothing? I once wore an oath to never kill PEOPLE like you...like you deserve to be called people...but in this day and age I have no qualms about killing you and leaving your bloodied bodies lying in this dank alleyway. So...are...you..ready...to, DIE!"

At this the guy with the shock baton dropped it and it clattered hollowly to the concrete and he began to stutter at first then became clearer, his voice shook with fear like a vibrato.

"Wha, what...WHAT the FUCK ARE you! Your eye's man! WTF ARE you! You can fucking have him and his money or what the fuck ever you want lady just don't kill me!"

He ran like a marathon runner out of the ally and around the corner not to be seen again, his buddy looked up at me and got the same look on his fave and he babbled the same, some thing about my eye's and he too did his best and scrambled his miserable hide up and out of there away from me. My vision started moving along the ground and soon came to a puddle on the ground, gazing into it I saw a females face and like the license it was fair and fine but then I noticed it and a shock of fear went through me as well. My eye's, the woman's eye's. They weren't normal at the moment, they had turned a bright gold color that seemed to glow in the darkness they were so bright and they were slitted like a cat's eye's. After a moment of gazing into this puddle they suddenly went back to normal, at first sight in the license I thought them to be gray but now I know the eye color to be silver.

Suddenly a flash back rocked through my brain, it was actually painful really really painful. But I began to remember some thing I had lost, memories about myself and some other things and who and 'what' I was. A symbol flashed through my mind, it was a bloody fire like crimson color . Other silver eye's and swords, a cloaked figure in black, the clacking of metal armor and the smell of fire. All of the memories were of grim sadness and of tremendous pain and long time suffering and loss, these things made me feel like wanting to end it but soon the emotions went away and all I had to deal with were images. Names as well though these were foggy enough where I could not put them together into some thing tangible yet, my memories felt very old at least the prominent ones and they felt old enough to be hundreds of years old.

Soon it all stopped and I was back, or at least it felt like I was back to normal. I found myself on my knees on the wet concrete, picking myself up I made the decision to first seek out this place in Shinjuku. Placing a hand in my left hoodie pocket I felt the key's, slim and cold and began my journey and hoped that reaching that place would hold some more clues.

Some time later I reached the place, ended up on the 25th floor of this high rise building. Pretty swanky I thought, then I used the key on the door that had the same markings and the door opened. Closing it behind me I had no sudden flash backs or anything, it was dark an I sought out the switch and found it. Light cascaded along the rooms expanse from the hall way I was standing in to the main room which was huge, it was decorated lavishly and furnished by what looked like medieval like plush furniture. There were standing suits of armor and swords adorning the walls in places all of them looked very real and not the pieces of shit you normally see, like a center piece there was a huge cabinet looking box it looked about ten feet tall and upon touch it confirmed what it was made of...some real heady duty steel.

It was starkly plain and just matte black but as I ran my hand along it I came upon the symbol...it was the very same that was in my flashback some time ago in that alleyway, and it was filled in slightly with a deep red epoxy or some thing that looked an awful lot like it. As my finger traced the symbol it began to glow startling me my hand instinctively jerking from it, but it returned and caressed it's light and surface and I felt like I longed for some thing while touching it.

"Ma'am...are you thinking of that old business again, I thought you said the world has not had a place for 'that kind' in time out of mind."

I jumped nearly out of my skin when the voice came from behind me, flipping around I saw a very old man standing there calm as could be like he knew me and a smile on his face. He looked like a butler of some sort,he looked kind enough so after taking a moment to collect myself I tried my best to talk.

"I...don't know who you are, I don't know who I am...but am trying to find out and excuse me if I am extremely confused but it has not been a good night for me."

For a moment he looked puzzled...and a split second later he got this very worried look on his old face.

"Oh my...you are in terrible sorts, come sit here and I will put on some tea and I will do my very best to help you Ms. Maeda."

Some time later things were dawning on me a bit, and then it started to get REALLY strange when he started to recount my past. He told me what that symbol meant, and explained as best he could or at least relayed what "I" had once confided in him that I was. That symbol was My symbol, it stood my my real name, and that it was given to me a long time ago. Exactly 'what' I was he explained as this...

"You look the very same as you did when you first hired me my lady, I am now a very well aged 71 years old...and I began work for you specially when I was aged exactly twenty seven years old...I remember because I had celebrated going to work for you at my twenty seventh birthday party two day's before I began working here for you. Your name is Kei Umiko Maeda the second, then again that is...not...your real true name you once told me...and you once told me the danger of knowing too much as well."

"Danger? I'm not who this id states that I am either? And how can it be possible that you have aged so much and I have aged none? Sorry, I think I am even more confused now than I was before..."

I lowered and shook my head, suddenly I felt my head being risen by a couple cool feeling fingers on my brow. It was the old man, and he was wearing a smile that wasn't happy but hopeful yet.

"I don't know how you managed to lose your memory Kei...BUT...I DO have some thing that you gave me a very long time ago for safe keeping, and it is to do with that huge strong box that has resided here since you came to settle, allow me to go get the envelope."

He was gone a few moments and I couldn't think of any thing to do but try and calm my nerves and sip the green tea in my cup, a lot of things did not make sense and I felt that I had never been so lost before in my life. And then he returned, holding in his hand a ancient looking envelope it was even sealed with a red wax seal.

"This letter has been in my exclusive care since the first year of my service with you my lady, it was the moment you began to truly trust me I believe. Also...that strong box has never been opened since you have been here, I mentioned it once and you stated this...*With hope Gregory...it will remain sealed until I and everything else about me is dust...what lies within that box is no longer of this world and it should remain that way along with me.*. What you meant by that exactly I am not sure, and I am hoping that it is nothing dangerous although this letter may hold they key to opening it...however now that I have recalled 'how' you stated that, I am no longer absolute on knowing exactly what might lie within its confines."

He handed me the letter and I took it reluctantly, but the more I looked at it the more I wanted to know what was in it that I would see to be so important to have sealed up forever. I turned it over to the wax seal, and it bore the exact same symbol as the strong box. Taking a deep breath I said screw it and broke the wax seal, it was really brittle and practically disintegrated when I broke it and the fold of the envelope pretty much fell off. My hopes fell a bit at this and I hoped that the letter inside was not in such bad shape as the envelope, once I had it out though I found it was in far better shape than the paper containing it. I read the whole thing and it was nothing too special except for a small pendant that was placed with the letter and instructions of how to use it, it seemed to open the strong box.

The allure was too strong for me to resist and the old man or Gregory stood back but with a look of great worry and apprehension on his face, as I stood directly in front of that huge strong box I stopped.

"My lady...you have lost your recollection of things for the moment...are you sure you want to do this without a clear head and understanding of what it is you are about to do?"

I stood silently for a moment thinking, nothing came.

"Gregory...nothing is coming to me and nothing has since I had a flash back in an ally some ways from here, I had already lost my memory and was jumped by four thugs and I managed to do a bit more than fight them off I think I killed one of them and it was so easy it was scary. I got a feeling my answers or at least some of them are in this thing, I have to find out."

With that I looked at the pendant that bore the same symbol as that on the strong box and the very same in my flash back earlier, I carefully placed it on the engraved symbol on the box. For a moment nothing happened but then suddenly I heard a dull mechanical sound...like gears working inside, then a loud metallic clank followed by a deep thud and a seal became visible and ajar. I grabbed and pulled at this new found door until it was half way open, dust was along the seal but on the inside it was totally dust free and like it had been getting cleaned every day. What was inside shocked me, Gregory who was over my shoulder was let out a sighing shocked gasp.

Inside the first thing was the most prominent thing seen, it gleamed in the bright lights of the room as if it were new but it had to be extremely old. It was a huge sword, a Claymore from what I thought but was bigger than any and unlike any I had thought I'd ever seen...easily nearly six feet long and had a fine hilt and near the hilt on the blade there it was in blazing scarlet that damn symbol etched right into the steel. There were some sort of suits folded nicely in high stacks off to one side, all were a white gray in color there seemed to be 20 or so and every one of them had a strange black neck piece and each of these bearing this symbol as well, then on the other side were pieces of armor carefully placed on a rather rugged mock up of a human figure. It looked unlike any armor I had ever seen to this point, all the parts were so very beautifully and delicately engraved. Although there were a couple of deep almost penetrating slash marks in it in various places that marred it but it still looked like new and definitely a masterpiece.

The whole set consisted of a cape, a set of shin high, slightly high-heeled metal Roman-like Sabatons a sort of boot, a set of large Vambraces or large armored wrist guards that extended to nearly the elbows, two heavy duty looking shoulder pieces I think they called them some thing like Spaulders in Roman times, and last but not least I could not at first identify but called it 'some thing of a skirt but it was made like the rest of the armor out of extremely sturdy metal. A second later I noticed a sort of built in sheath for the huge sword mounted to the shoulder pieces, all of this seemed extremely heavy duty and a normal person wearing all of this would be hard pressed to march in it let alone fight in it and even more impossible to swing that mammoth of a sword all at the same time while some one is also trying to kill you. Asides all of this there were other odds and end's and also a huge ancient looking book bound in leather and what looked like silvered corners and spine all of it gilded, it also bore the same symbol.

I reached out for the book and instead my hand decided to take a right and I grabbed the sword instead, and that flash back thing happened again my head feeling like it was exploding multiple times in a painful super nova of bloody pain and emotional turmoil from hell. I blacked out. Suddenly I woke up my eye's fluttered in the suns brilliant orange yellow dying light for a moment along with falling rain, then all as again forgotten and myself and things began to play out on the biggest stage there is...the world within a memory.


	2. Total Recall

It was nearing dusk the skies were bringing down a light rain, it was early spring and the air was damp and chill. The valleys were lush and green and the mountain range not far off was shrouded in mist, some way away was the town of Doga and faintly the sound of fading combat radiated from it. Those towns people who witnessed the battle were awestruck with both wonder and fear, it seemed to have came to an end so quickly. Six Yoma lay dead in the main street, their bodies in different states of destruction their blood soaking the cobble stone and being washed away by the rain.

They had been terrorizing the small town now for about a week, killing and eating nearly a dozen villagers in the meantime. No one dared to yet come out of their locked up homes, they were just as afraid of the Claymore as they were the Yoma and especially at how unbelievably powerful this one seemed to be. The six Yoma seemed to be nothing to her, they might as well have stood still and let her kill them. Now she stood motionless the decapitated and eviscerated bodies scattered about her armored feet, slowly she moved re sheathing her sword turning and began walking toward to entrance of the town where she had entered not long ago.

Before she reached the gate an old man and his wife both wearing hoods to shield then from the rain came up to her, the man was carrying a double wrapped bag in cloth they both looked very wary and scared but confidant enough to approach her.

"Please miss...accept our greatest thanks for saving our town from those Yoma, they had killed...so many. But...t thanks to you Claymore they will no longer be tormenting us, please do accept this payment for your great service to us all."

He held out the wrapped bag tentatively to her, it was obviously heavy with coin. She looked the old man in the eye's her brilliant silver meeting his old faded blues, he managed to keep her gaze when many would have either looked away or ran...she was slightly impressed with this.

"Keep it. You should know that I am not able to accept payment myself, after I am gone a man in black will come to collect my fee. Be sure he get's it, I have no need or want for your payments or gifts I only completed my mission."

She broke their gaze, her long silvan hair was braided in the back with long bangs running loose framing her lovely face. Her ears were like an elf's fairly long and pointed graceful, her armor the same as any other Claymore except all metal parts were richly and intricately engraved. The old man and his wife just watched as she left through the gate not looking back, even for a Claymore this one seemed to them different in some way. Some how she seemed a great deal more dangerous and powerful than any other to have ever passed though the small town of Doga, her cold demeanor was the same and the only physical difference was that her armor was etched beautifully.

Some time later the Claymore found and set up a small make shift camp in the mouth of a cave near the town of Egon, after a fire was started and enough fire wood collected she thrust her sword into the ground and sat leaning against it after slipping off her fauld, vambraces, spaulders and sabatons and neatly placing them next to her. She stared into the warm blaze of the fire, her thoughts unknown other than the crackling of the fire and the soft patter of the rain outside the mouth of the cave.

Her name is Valerie, aka Valerie "The Stoic". Ranked number one in the organization, most powerful of the Claymores and rumored to be powerful enough to easily have a place amongst the top eight most powerful Claymores in history.

Next morning at first light she was already on the move, she passed closely by the small town of Egon her pace seeming to slow some what. Her eyes gazed along it's boarders and town center from the hill top she was walking along, stopping for a moment. The wind tugged at her silver hair as she stood, to some Claymore not to mention humans this would seem strange. Few knew that before all of the cataclysmic change that crashed into her life the past year and a half, the small town of Egon was the sight of her first mission...and also the place she had lost her only friend...also a Claymore but that story is for another time.

As Valerie moved on she cleared her mind of depressing thoughts, the day was young and there was much traveling to do this day if she were going to get to the spot where she would rendezvous with her assigned Agent from the Organization to acquire details of her next mission.

Arriving late that evening very near the land bridge that would bypass the Central Region Toulouse and take her into the Southern Quadrant of Mucha, she made camp and later met with her Agent in a clearing not far from her camp in the ancient hard woods. The man was skinny and frail looking wearing all black including a cloak and a face partial face covering and a staff, he was sitting atop a large old stump in the clearing and she could see his smile in his dark eye's as he saw her approach. As was taught when becoming a Claymore she was wearing only her two piece suit and her mock neck with her symbol emblazoned on it at the base of her throat.

"Ah, it is good to see you again Valerie. I hope the journey here treated you well, also I must say you did a very nice job back there in Doga. The townspeople seemed relived that the Yoma problem could be so quickly and painlessly taken care of, regardless of their thoughts about you or any of our other warriors."

Valerie's face did not change, she always seemed blank almost like a machine. She sensed his smile falter slightly under that covering he wore, she never did like him not any of the Organization's men. She was wary of them and did not hold them much in any regard much less a high one or a low one for that matter, as at times it had seemed that they were trying to kill her by proxy by sending her on suicide missions randomly. Most any other Claymore would likely have been dead by now from some of the missions she had been sent on, nearly dying once and many others she had come close to being gravely wounded.

"The road is a road weather there is one or not, traveling suits me fine."

She paused for a moment, frowning inside.

"What is my next mission?"

"My my, you really are never talkative Valerie...you really must learn to open up more."

"That is NONE of your concern...I am a soldier and do what is asked of me from the Organization, and that is quite enough for me."

He let out a sigh, and was quiet for a moment then spoke.

"Very well then. Your next mission is in a town not too far from here, a day and a half away. The town of Musha, they seem to be having a problem there that sounds an awful lots like a Voracious Eater..."

Valerie stopped him mid sentence with an upraised hand.

"You mean an Awakened Being..."

He cocked an eye at her, she was extremely knowledgeable and faulted himself for thinking for an instant she was the slightest naive.

"Um...yes. But from what our sources say it may or may not be one, perhaps just a very experienced Yoma perhaps two."

She placed a hand on her hip as he continued.

"In any case number one, when you arrive in Musha rent a room at the local Inn. Wait there as we are sending another warrior to lend any assistance you may or may not need."

Her silver eyes fixed on him with intense scrutiny at this information, wondering what the Organization was thinking. She became even more wary as this mission seemed very peculiar...perhaps yet another attempt on her life, but of course she had no proof and did not have any for the other incidents either.

"Another warrior? That is odd...even for you and the Organization, IF it is an Awakened Being you know she will likely be in my way."

For a moment he seemed to laugh some under his breath, his attitude become almost giddy.

"Well as you say...IF it is an Awakened Being, you should have at least one other warrior to accompany you. Help doesn't hurt you know, in any case it is not negotiable...orders ARE orders Valerie."

He paused for a long moment, then continued in the nearly gleeful tone that she took as smug and intolerable.

"The warrior that will be joining you on this hunt will be the Organization's current number Nine, so I doubt that she will prove to be a hindrance to you or the mission...also...I think you will find MUCH in common with her actually."

She opened her mouth to ask about this last bit as he got up and began to walk away, conversion over apparently. She closed it just as fast, she thought just as well to be rid of him than asking possible stupid questions. She had no idea why they would send another warrior as she had proven on more that one occasion that she was far more than capable of taking care of herself, even when fighting an Awakened Being that most would die fighting with a group. The last bit of what he had said tugged at her mind however, it stuck and made her wonder...she did not know nor had ever met number Nine.

Arriving back at camp she sat against her sword, after a while those thoughts quieted and she slept and uneasy sleep. The dreams came and went some pleasant, most were not. Mainly flashes from her time of becoming within the Organization, which were nightmares in their gritty detail. Not all were bad, flashes of the friend she had found in those dark times as they became fellow warriors. They had comforted each other through the worst it their transformation, funny how they could only sleep if they were huddled up together as it seemed the only way to ease the pain and lonely suffering. Flashes of her childhood, a little girl with long red hair tied back in white bows of linen not a care in the world.

She arrived in Musha a day and a half later in the afternoon, the sun was hot but a cool breeze lazily blew across the plane between the mountains the town lay in. She found the Inn easily and managed a room, she didn't care much for it she was not used to a roof over her head. Not but an hour later a knock at the room door, she already knew it was #9 as she sensed her yoki aura coming from a way off even though this one seemed to be very good at hiding her yoki. When she opened the door the face her eyes gazed upon made her legs feel slightly weak, she knew this face.

"Well...are you going to let me in or are were going to stand here all evening?"

Quickly regaining her composure seamlessly she stepped aside letting the warrior through, soon they both sat in silence for a moment. It was Valerie who spoke first, very uncharacteristic of her nature, she could not help it in this instance though.

"Jean...#9 of the Organization, I had no idea it would be you."

Jean looked up and gazed at Valerie somewhat puzzled at what she said.

"We've never met before this day, how do you know my name #1?"

Instead of being cryptic as she normally was, she decided to be upfront and frank. The mission ahead might very well be a dangerous one, and in this world one could not be guaranteed anything let alone a second chance. She needed to get this off her chest, it had been a very long time.

"For a very long time I once only knew your face, it has been etched into my mind since I can remember. The warrior who saved my life from the yoma in the Western Quadrant Lautrec, in the City of Hanel. There were several yoma in disguise in the city, one of them had been in the form of my aunt and had come that evening killing my parents and nearly myself...I was 11 then."

Jean simply sat looking at her leader, listening to the tale she was telling.

"You...Jean, it was you. I could never forget that day, when you looked at me after killing that yoma your face became embedded into my mind. I was in the process of being outcast like others whose family had been impersonated by yoma, and I remembered from the tales I had heard growing up that once a Claymore's business was done, that not long after a man in black would come to collect their fee. Frightened at the idea that I would be thrown out I sought to hunt down this man in black when he came, and that I did. But it was not just the fear of being outcast that drove me to confront him, I saw you as my savior. Like a noble knight, you saved me and asked for no thanks and it made some thing in me awaken and then I all I wanted was to see you again so I could thank you."

Jean moved forward to speak but Valerie held up a hand stopping her for the moment, her eyes opened and gazed right into Jeans as she continued.

"The man stated that if I ever wanted to see you again, it would have to be on their terms, I knew it was bullshit even then I was not stupid. But I seen an opportunity in what he said, that when we did meet I could meet you on your own terms on even ground. Meaning as a fellow comrade in arms, and this very thought made me swell with pride in hopes that you might be pleased. But I know now that you are likely not to be pleased, I threw away my humanity to become a warrior. I still don't give a damn to this day, I did what I still feel is right. I just had no idea the day would come so soon, that we would meet even though it has been years since that day."

Jean sat silent for a moment, her eyes were searching Valerie with confused intent as if she were seeing some thing that should not be there. When she spoke the only thing that came out at first was the stupidest thing she could say, tongue tied as she was.

"I needed nor need any thanks, let alone a sacrifice like that."

She saw a dejected expression come across the once stony features of her leaders face for a moment, then she looked at her symbol and noticed some thing.

"What is your name?"

"It is Valerie...or better known now as Valerie the Stoic. Ranked number 1 in the Organization."

Jeans eyes widened a little, they had told her that the warrior she was to meet up with was very powerful and a high rank...but number 1?.

"Valerie..."

She trailed off for a moment, then memory flashed vague scenes. Looking Valerie in the eyes, studying her facial features. Her mind flashed red hair around Valerie's face, with...what seemed cotton bows in it and a much younger face. Her eyes widened as complete recollection hit her, she remembered this face out of thousands.

"I...I am sorry, I failed you Valerie."

She bowed her head in a gesture of defeat, but suddenly a hand flashed to her shoulder spaulder gently pressing her back into an upright position. She was met by Valeries steely silver eyes, the look in her face was not one of anger but more akin to a happy sadness as her other hand came to Jean's shoulder.

"Never be sorry, you did not fail me Jean. My mother passed away from her wounds not long after the attack, I had no one and Hanel was on the verge of getting rid of me like all of those who survive. In a way I had a choice, I made the one that I felt I wanted to make. I had nothing, nothing but the memory of the one who saved my life. I chose to become a warrior, I was not forced and I understood what it meant. And now that we have met and have come to terms, you Jean are my family weather you accept it or not."


End file.
